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Fuel tax is a big factor, but US has a lot of road. The US has 3x the amount of paved surface vs. Germany. European winters are also milder than the US. I'm not sure how many European roads would survive going from -10 to 140 like they do in the midwest

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Actually, that's surprisingly little roads in the US. The population is significantly larger (more than 3x), so on a per person basis roads in Germany see much more use than in the US. And roads there are in a much better state than in the use despite the higher usage rate.

So also as a consequence of this: If the US were to use the same per person $ amount to upkeep their roads, US roads would have WAY more money to be maintained. Yet, the outcome is obviously worse.

Doh! I left out a key detail. The US has 3x the paved surface per person!

Also more VMT, which would tend to balance the excess roads, because more driving leads to more fuel tax revenue. USA has more than double the VMT per capita of Germany. If the fuel tax was appropriately set, then this factor would compensate for the greater sizes of the roads.

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